We welcome the cold and greet these holiday-rich days with Quakerbridge Barley Wine. An incarnation of a Half Acre favorite, Marty Stouffer’s Wild America Barley Wine, this weighty beer is a choose-your-own-adventure experience. Freshly plugged, this beer is a hop guster to bring your holiday retreat to its knees, but time allows this brew to round and settle into an ever maltier bomb of balance. Whether your mug is beside a Thanksgiving gobbler or a holiday ham, let our bottled elixir join you and your family on its collision course of celebration. So, pull a cork and belly up to home – this hulk of a holiday hazer will settle any family retreat into a warming submission hold of mirth.

Bright and saturated reddish amber orange. Sturdy cap of off white foam leaves behind a few irregular arcs of lacing. Retention is good, head lasts for awhile initially. Later the foam recedes to a veil that eventually parts across the surface.

Big cantaloupe and melon at first, becoming sweet, later woody and spicy like sandalwood. Alcohol is well hidden in the aroma.

Earthy and sweet, dry and bitter, alternating modes equally large in the hop & malt departments. A bit bitter and biting with the higher abv, earthy and vegetal middle, a flash of light fruity sultana sweetness at the very beginning. Hops and booze really dry it out in the bitter chalky finish, oily and resiny in the middle. Overall a good one to share while fresh to pick up on the fresh hop aromas and flavor, but will likely age nicely.

Gotta love the surprise bottle finds sometimes, right? This one pours a clear garnet-ruby topped by a finger of glowing off-white foam. The nose comprises grapefruit zest (both yellow and ruby red), light leek, and caramel. I'm assuming there's some Citra in this, based on that bit of leek. The taste holds notes of caramel, straight ruby red grapefruit rind, light leek, and a very light twinge of vinyl. The body is a straight medium, with a light moderate carbonation and a dry finish. Overall, an alright barleywine, but one that left VDubb and myself somewhat wanting. For me, the leek and vinyl aspects detract significantly from what would, I believe, have been a merely pretty good b-wine.

S - Caramel malts, burnt sugars, big mix of citrus and piney hops, perhaps a hint of alcohol. Very good balance of malt and hops and a good example of this style.

T - The taste is similarly a solid mix of toffee and caramel sweetness, zesty citrus and earthy hops, and mild bitterness in the finish. Alcohol is better-hidden and again this displays good balance.

M - Smooth, medium body, a bit toasty in texture, with some residual hop oils and resins that linger. Chewy, with a bit of warming alcohol, particularly as it warms.

D - Other than a slight booziness, this is a very good American barleywine. I enjoyed this quite a bit more than Marty Stouffer and may need to pick up another bottle to try a few months down the road. I liked this almost as much as Santa Vs. Unicorn.

(Served in a snifter)A- This beer pours a slightly dense clear garnet body with a sticky beige head of creamy that leaves spots of foam on the glass with each sip. There is a slow carbonation working its way to the surface.

S- The full green hops aroma has some woody and slightly mint hints to it.

T- The bright but dank green hops have a cream flavor to follow and a lemon tartness to the hops that grow in the finish. There is some pale malt that is slightly dry in the finish that blend into some more bright hops that linger. There is some caramel malt sweetness that grows in the background as the beer opens.

M- The medium-light mouthfeel has a creamy texture in the finish and no alcohol heat noticed.

O- This beer has a light body and big bright hops that were very fresh and a nice malt support that grew as it opened. I wouldn’t describe this as a barleywine as it doesn’t really have the luscious malt that I enjoy, but this beer was delicious whatever label you want to stamp on it.